1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to tool racks and more particularly to tool racks for use with pneumatic tools.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pneumatic tools can be used wherever there is a source of compressed air. Because of this requirement for compressed air, pneumatic tools are usually not found in the home. However, because of advantages in using such tools, they are often found in many small garages and body shops. In addition, they are found in many manufacturing facilities. The users of pneumatic tools typically have a large number of different pneumatic tools on hand, which requires that there be a storage location for the tools when they are not in use.
In the past, such tools were found scattered about a work bench. If they are stored, they are often placed on a shelf or in a drawer. Placing each individual tool on a shelf takes up a large amount of space. It also leaves the area looking disorganized. While placing the individual tools in a drawer will make a work area look neater, this practise requires a large amount of storage space. In addition, the tools are not in plain sight, and therefore are not readily available. There has been a long felt need in the industry to provide a tool rack that securely and orderly supports pneumatic tools. The pneumatic tools should be displayed in a manner to allow for quick inventory of all the tools in the rack. It would also be advantageous for such a tool rack to allow for quick and easy withdrawal of the pneumatic tools when their use is required. Such a tool rack should help prevent damage to the tools by rigidly holding the tools as they are stored. Preferably, the tool rack should provide for storage on both the top and bottom of the rack to provide more compact storage.
To date, there are no known special tool racks available for the storage of pneumatic tools. While there are no tool racks available which provide the features described in the preceeding paragraph for pneumatic tools, there are prior art devices which have incorporated one or several of the features for non-pneumatic tools. One such device is a tool rack for yieldably gripping long slender shanks of tools. A resilient material, such as natural or synthetic rubber, is mounted under a top wall. The top wall has a number of openings for receiving the shanks of tools. The resilient material has cross slits at spaced intervals which align with the openings in the top wall. The slender shank of a tool is inserted through the cross slits of the resilient material which causes the resilient material to spread apart and compress, providing support for holding the shank of a tool. This type of device works only for tools with long slender shanks and not for large tools which may be top heavy. The rsilient material does not provide enough force to hold the male air coupler nipple of a pneumatic tool in a substantially upright position. The weight of the pneumatic tool would cause the male air coupler nipple to pass completely through the resilient material, causing the lower portion of the body of the pneumatic tool to rest upon the outer surface of the tool rack. Further, if such a structure were used for holding pneumatic tools, the tools would be free to tilt on their vertical axes, possibly hitting adjacent pneumatic tools and thereby becoming damaged. Such a device could not be used to store pneumatic tools on both the top and bottom portions of the rack because the resilient material does not provide enough support for holding a pneumatic tool in an inverted position.
Another known device which also uses a resilient material is designed to hold a cutting tool in a tool magazine. The gripping means comprises a ring of resilient material housed in an annular recess in a cylindrical wall of the tool holder. The cylindrical wall of the tool holder has a diameter greater than the diameter of the tool that is held. The diameter of the circle defined by the resilient material is slightly smaller than that of the tool. Therefore, when a tool is inserted into the cylindrical hole, there is a friction fit between the tool and resilient material. In addition to being held in place by the resilient material, additional support for the tool is received when the bottom edge of the tool rests on the floor of the cylindrical hole.
This type of tool rack could not be used to store pneumatic tools on both the top and bottom portions of the rack because the resilient material alone does not provide enough support to hold a pneumatic tool in an inverted position. While this tool rack provides more support than the tool rack discussed in the preceeding paragraph, the varying diameter of the male air coupler nipple portion of a pneumatic tool creates difficulties in obtaining a secure grip of the tool by its outer surface, and the pneumatic tool can tilt on its vertical axis, possibly hitting and damaging adjacent pneumatic tools.
There is yet another type of device that is used to store tools. A tool is held in a carrier having a circumferential groove. The tool and the carrier are retained in an annular member of the tool rack by means of pin elements in the annular member which are spring loaded inward into the groove. As the tool and the carrier are inserted into the annular member, the spring elements are urged against the action of the springs until the circumferential groove registers with the pin elements, whereupon the pin elements are urged by the spring, and engaged in the circumferential groove to retain the two in the annular member. As in the device previously described, the tool in the carrier is also supported by a bottom wall of an annular member.
The tool in the carrier is removed by lifting the tool upwards. The spring elements are forced backward by the surface of the circumferential groove. This does not provide for positive engagement of the tool with its carrier. As with the previously described prior art tool holding devices, pneumatic tools can not be stored on the top and bottom portions of the rack. With such a structure, a pneumatic tool will not be supported in inverted position, but will fall from the bottom of the tool rack.
The last two tool racks that were described are typically used for carrying cutting tools for use with numerically controlled equipment. Their design and construction result in tool racks that are custom ordered for the particular types of cutting tools used, and are relatively expensive.
The present invention addresses the above problems that are associated with the storage of tools, and in particular with the storage of pneumatic tools.